Nation's #1 Soundtrack Album, DREAMGIRLS - Music From The Motion Picture, Bullets 28 Positions Up Billboard Top 200 To Hit #3

DREAMGIRLS - Music From the Motion Picture, the official soundtrack album from the heralded Dreamworks and Paramount Pictures film, has rocketed from #31 to #3 on the Billboard Top 200 best-selling albums chart following the film's highly-successful opening on Christmas Day.

A deluxe collector's edition of DREAMGIRLS - Music From the Motion Picture has jumped from #132 to #60 on the Top 200, with combined sales from the two editions totaling more than 130,000 pieces for the final week of 2006. (Had Billboard's charting rules allowed for combined sales of both editions, the "Dreamgirls" soundtrack would've been #1 on the Top 200.)

DREAMGIRLS - Music From the Motion Picture currently holds two of the Top 5 spots on the Top Soundtracks sales chart. According to SoundScan, Dreamgirls moved from #3 to #1, after selling 104,366 units, while the collector's edition moved from #12 to #5, after selling 25,838 pieces (up more than 1,000 from the week before).

Beyonce's "Listen," the first single from DREAMGIRLS - Music From the Motion Picture, was co-written by Beyonce with "Dreamgirls" composer Henry Krieger, Anne Preven and Scott Cutler and is one of four original songs on the soundtrack not featured in the original Broadway production. "Listen" has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award in the Best Original Song category. The prestigious Broadcast Film Critics Association has also nominated "Listen" for Best Song and Dreamgirls for Best Soundtrack. "Dreamgirls" earned seven BFCA nominations including Best Picture, Best Director (Bill Condon), and Best Acting Ensemble.

The smash soundtrack album features an incredible line-up of award-caliber performances from Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, Eddie Murphy, Anika Noni Rose and breakout star Jennifer Hudson.

"Dreamgirls," a Dreamworks and Paramount Pictures co-production, was a huge success in its first week in wide release. After earning a whopping $8.7 million on Christmas Day -- the best single day ever for a musical -- the film racked up $41.349 million in its first 8 days of wide release. The film took in $14.1 million for the three day week-end and $18.384 million for the four day week-end with a per screen average of $21,578.

"Dreamgirls," directed by Bill Condon and starring Jamie Foxx, Beyonce Knowles and Eddie Murphy represents the third-biggest box office total for a film that opened or went national on Christmas Day, bested only by 2001's "Ali" and 2002's "Catch Me if You Can," both of which opened in more than 2,000 theatres, compared to "Dreamgirls" more limited release in 852 theatres.

This holiday-season feel-good film has been playing to very enthusiastic crowds with audiences applauding and cheering after musical numbers, sometimes giving the film standing ovations in the theatre. In exit surveys, moviegoers across the country have given the film a 95% favorable rating. "That's the highest I've ever seen," said Rob Moore, Paramount Pictures president of worldwide marketing and distribution adding, "not only have audiences responded to surveys with spectacular scores, we've seen them respond to the movie in a remarkable way with ovations during the performance of the film."

The popular groundswell for the movie -- combined with a slew of awards nominations and critics' association kudos including five Golden Globe nominations, three Screen Actors Guild nominations, a Producers Guild "Best Picture" nomination and seven Broadcast Film Critics Association nominations -- bodes well for the box office performance when "Dreamgirls" expands its release to approximately 1800 theatres on Friday, January 12.

SOURCE: Music World Music/Columbia/Sony Music Soundtrax

CONTACT: Yvette Noel-Schure, +1-212-833-4483,
Yvette.Noel-Schure@sonybmg.com

Web site: http://dreamgirlsmovie.com/
http://www.columbiarecords.com/